Our Classical Century – The Bridge on the River Kwai

100 years of great music-making marked in a new BBC season Our Classical Century is starting this month.
It involves BBC Four, BBC Two, Radio 3 and all the BBC orchestras from November 2018 to July 2019.

One episode is dedicated to Malcolm Arnold and his film score to the Bridge on the River Kwai.

From the press release:

In the third discovery concert of the series, Katie Derham presents Sir Malcolm Arnold’s The Bridge on the River Kwai (the soundtrack to the 1957 film of the same name) performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Christopher Seaman.

Sir Malcolm Arnold was a prolific composer across many musical genres. A composer equally at home in the film studio as in the concert hall, his Oscar-winning score for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) is perhaps his best-known film soundtrack.

Following the concert, Katie learns about the fascinating story of Arnold’s life; a pacifist, Arnold shot himself in order to get medically discharged from active service during World War II. Speaking to other film composers about Arnold, Katie learns how it was the composer’s acute understanding of each individual orchestral instrument that allowed him to finish composing what was to become such an iconic soundtrack in just 10 days.

Producer/Director: Mathew Tucker

Executive Producer: Richard Bradley

A Lion Television production for BBC Four

Discovering… Arnold’s The Bridge on the River Kwai is on in April 2019 on BBC Four